Book Review: Impatient With Desire

Title: Impatient With Desire
Author: Gabrielle Burton
ISBN: 1401341012
Pages: 256
Release Date: March 9, 2010
Publisher: Voice
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Publicist
Rating: 3 out of 5 Bookworms



From Goodreads.com:

In the spring of 1846, Tamsen Donner, her husband, George, their five daughters, and eighty other pioneers headed to California in eager anticipation of new lives out West. Everything that could go wrong did, and an American legend was born.

The Donner Party. We think we know their story - starving pioneers trapped in the mountains performing an unspeakable act to survive - but we know only that one harrowing part of it. Impatient with Desire brings us answers to the unanswerable question: What really happened in the four months the Donners were trapped in the Sierra Nevadas? And it brings to life the woman behind the myth.

Tamsen Eustis Donner, born in 1801, taught school, wrote poetry, painted, botanized, and spoke French. At twenty-three, she sailed alone from Massachusetts to North Carolina when respectable women didn't travel alone. At forty-five, she set off with her family for California on the California-Oregon Trail. Later, trapped in the mountains by early snows, she had plenty of time to contemplate the cost of her wanderlust. Historians have long known that Tamsen kept a journal, though it was never found.

In Impatient with Desire, Burton draws on years of historical research to imagine this lost journal - and paints a picture of a remarkable heroine in an extraordinary situation. Tamsen's unforgettable journey takes us from the cornfields of Illinois to the dusty Oregon Trail to the freezing Sierra Nevada Mountains, where she was forced to confront an impossible choice.

Review:

While I had general knowledge about The Donner Party and what happened to them in the mountains in 1847, I really hadn't looked into the circumstances or read anything about them until this book. Although this book is a work of fiction, author Gabrielle Burton did an enormous amount of research into what little is known about what really happened to the Donner Party and she does an excellent job of weaving facts, rumors and fiction into a very believable and heart wrenching tale.

I loved the character of Tamsen Donner. She was a strong, opinionated woman in a time when women were supposed to be meek and silent. I loved her relationship with her husband, George. I loved how she fought tooth and nail, and did some unspeakable things, to keep her children alive. She is a woman I would have loved to know.

The story itself was easy to read and very engaging. It was fascinating to learn about the Donners' journey, the decisions that caused them to delay and choose the road less traveled and the way they fought to survive while trapped in the mountains. As soon as I finished the book, I did several online searches for more information. I was eager to learn more about this tragic event and the people involved.

I give this book 4 Bookworms. I liked it very much and would recommend it to anyone looking to read a quick but rich piece of historical fiction.